Meet the new boss

The Queen’s Park Press Gallery has a new president.

Toronto Sun columnist Christina Blizzard has been acclaimed as head of the influential collective that oversees media goings-on at the Ontario Legislature.

Only the second woman gallery president in living memory - CanWest News Services’ April Lindgren was the first, several years back - Blizzard is a long-time Park veteran.

She succeeds CH television’s Randy Rath, another Legislative stalwart, who was interim president after former prez Alan Findlay, also of the Sun, decamped for Ottawa last month.

Rath is now vice-president, broadcast.

The Toronto Star’s Rob Ferguson is the new vice-president, print.

Murray Campbell, of The Globe and Mail, is the treasurer and CBC Radio’s John McGrath is secretary.

In other gallery news, the annual Spring Fling will be held Wednesday, June 7 at the University of Toronto’s Hart House, staggering distance from Queen’s Park. Tickets are not yet on sale, but keep checking the Political Notebook.

It’s like an episode of The Sopranos around here

The Liberals and Progressive Conservatives are doing their best to emulate TV’s favourite Mafia family with some cold-blooded spring cleaning.

On Monday, Andrew Hilton, the well-regarded communications adviser and legislative assistant to Community Safety Minister Monte Kwinter, was mysteriously offed.

Despite the ongoing native crises in Caledonia and Kashechewan, Hilton, who had a good relationship with the Queen’s Park press gallery, was let go. He is now off to join his wife in Beijing, China.

Sources say the blame does not lay with Kwinter, who is known as one of the true gentlemen at the Park, but one of his underlings. The official in question is a polarizing figure and insiders confide the minister’s office is a toxic place right now.

Political veteran Ashley Dent has now been thrust into the apparently thankless job.

The Liberals, however, are not alone in their ruthless treatment of loyal staff members. Brett Kelly, another popular fixture at the pink palace, was sacked last week as the Tories’ research director.

PC sources say leader John Tory wanted to move in a different direction and a new appointee will be named soon.

The affable Kelly, a stalwart dating back to the Mike Harris era, is well liked by reporters because of his strong institutional history and his thoughtful demeanour.

His biggest triumph was exposing the controversy swirling around Transportation Minister Harinder Takhar, which continues to haunt the Liberal government.

No word yet on what Kelly’s plans are, but as he is close to senior provincial and federal Tories, including Health Minister Tony Clement, his services will be in demand.

Check your mailbox!

Politicians, political appointees, party hacks and those convicted of elections crimes are out of luck.

But, otherwise, anyone from newspaper pundits to murderers who have served their time is eligible to be a member of Ontario’s new Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform.

Last Monday, Elections Ontario began mailing out 123,948 letters to randomly selected people in all 103 provincial ridings inviting them to participate in the volunteer panel that will examine changes to Ontario’s electoral system.

Chief Election Officer John Hollins said Tuesday the letters are being sent to people whose names are on the 8.4 million-person permanent register of electors, which should represent citizens from every walk of life.

Hollins said the goal is to select 103 citizens - 52 women and 51 men, including at least one "self-identified aboriginal" person - plus 206 alternates, two for each riding by July 14.

The panellists will be paid $150 a day and all expenses as they study reforms.

Almost anyone who receives one of the coveted letters is entitled to participate, including advocates or opponents of electoral reform in the media and people who have been convicted of any crime - except a contravention of the Elections Act.

Only sitting federal, provincial, municipal politicians, school board trustees, political appointees and party activists are expressly forbidden from joining the assembly.

George Thomson, chair of the panel, said he hopes the selection process, which was used to pick British Columbia’s democratic renewal panel, will ensure a good cross-section of Ontarians.

Thomson said pundits and ex-convicts are as welcome as anyone.

"If they’ve served their time and they’re back in the community and they’re selected through this process, yeah, they’re a citizen like everybody else," he said, stressing media types could also sit on the panel.

"More than that, journalists can come to all the meetings. This is going to be a totally open process. There’s nothing to prevent a journalist from being on it or not being on it and writing about it."

Premier Dalton McGuinty said those selected will participate in "a really important undertaking," which will examine whether Ontario should abandon its first-past-the-post system, in which a riding is represented by the candidate who garners the most votes, for another method of electing MPPs. The alternative systems examined would be based on some form of proporational representation, in which the make-up of the legislature would more closely reflect the popular vote each party receives in an election.

"We’ve inherited a particular electoral system. We didn’t choose that system. We inherited it," said McGuinty.

"It’s important to give Ontarians the opportunity to examine it in some detail to compare it with other existing systems and make a decision as to whether or not they want to exchange it for another or to keep what we have because they consider it the best of all the options."

Rubber Sole

No, the Blog hasn't misspelled the title of an old Beatles album.

It's drawing your attention to the latest freebies available to MPPs, who already earn a minimum of $86,860 a year.

A group called the Healthy Ontario Relay Challenge is offering a free pair of Brooks running shoes to any and all provincial politicians showing up Wednesday at Queen's Park to promote a program aimed at getting kids to start training for mini-marathons.

Fitness is a worthy goal, no doubt, but do politicians who already earn well above the national average wage really need the free shoes?

Maybe organizers of the event should do a little sole-searching, finding disadvantaged kids more in need of proper running gear.

Happy Belated Earth Day

Here's a shocker from Toronto Hydro.

On Monday, three days after you-know-what day, cards arrive in the mailboxes of Queen's Park reporters. Under a picture of the lakefront wind turbine on the CNE grounds, there's this wish: "Let's make every day Earth Day in Toronto."

There's also a press release touting the utility's environmental programs but no mention, on the card, whether it's printed on recycled paper. Well, if it wasn't recycled, it will be now after being tossed into the Star bureau's blue bin.

We offer this observation from an Earth Day website: "Forests are essential to the web of life. They are home to millions of species, protect soil from erosion, save carbon dioxide and help regulate climate."

Most Churlish Press Release Of The Past Week

We're late to the table with this one -- hey, even the Political Notebook deserves a vacation in the Caribbean -- but in our absence, one especially funny press release arrived in our "in" basket.
"FINALLY MCGUINTY HIRES SOMEONE WHO UNDERSTANDS THE ECONOMY," thundered a news release last Friday from Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory.
This, of course, was to hail the fact that Premier Dalton McGuinty has hired former PC premier Ernie Eves to advise on economic issues.
“Clearly Dalton McGuinty is having trouble managing the economy properly,” said Tory. “I’m pleased that he has decided to bring in a Progressive Conservative who was part of a government that oversaw a growing economy and stimulated investment in Ontario. It’s clear the McGuinty government has had a rough time in both regards.”
Er, yeah, whatever.
This would be the same Ernie Eves who led the Tories to their most disastrous electoral result since 1990 after a tumultuous 18 months in power, left the party $10 million in debt and accrued an Ontario deficit of $5.6 billion.
Of course McGuinty is rewarding him -- the eminence grease helped him become premier!
But Tory's churlish press release is most puzzling. Better to either say nothing or just praise McGuinty for making a token non-partisan appointment. By portraying Eves as a saviour of the economy, the PC leader paints himself into a bit of a corner.

Stop The Presses: Two Irishmen Who Don’t Get Along

Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty roared with laughter when he was asked Wednesday what he thought about former Ontario education minister Gerard Kennedy entering the race to lead the Liberals in Ottawa.

"Gerard and I didn’t get along very well when I was at Queen’s Park," said Flaherty. As provincial treasurer in 2001, Flaherty created a tax credit for parents who send their kids to private school. Kennedy killed the measure when the McGuinty Liberals took power.

"Maybe I’ll send him a campaign donation," said the affable federal Tory.

Despite their shared Irish heritage and a mutual affinity for a properly pulled pint of Guinness, Flaherty and Kennedy have never been friendly.

Sorbara’s Big Night

It was a glittering crowd of 1,200 Liberals - and a smattering of Tory sympathizers, including neo-con journalist Linda Frum - who paid tribute to former treasurer Greg Sorbara the other night in Vaughan.

Former premier David Peterson received a standing ovation when he railed about the "grave injustice" against Sorbara, who was forced to resign from the McGuinty cabinet last fall after being named in an RCMP search warrant.

McGuinty, who owes his 2003 election victory to Sorbara more than to any other single person, told reporters at the event that he wants his friend back in cabinet as soon as his legal matters are resolved.

The fundraiser brought in more than $200,000 to party coffers and attracted former NDP premier Bob Rae, who Sorbara is backing for the federal Liberal leadership, most of McGuinty’s cabinet and every developer worth his salt in southern Ontario.

For the record, Rae received a frosty reception from many Grits who seem him as an interloping arriviste.

Somewhere, Scott Feschuk Is Weeping

Things can get tricky when politicians weigh in with references pop cultural - master speechwriter Scott Feschuk watched former prime minister Paul Martin mangle many a timely pithy aside.

On Tuesday, Energy Minister Donna Cansfield mistakenly told the Legislature that Paul Rhodes, an adviser to former Progressive Conservative premiers Mike Harris and Ernie Eves, had "received $1 billion" for work done in the electricity sector.

"Oh, you think it’s great that we paid him $1 billion - $1 million, sorry," sputtered Cansfield after Conservative MPPs starting hooting and hollering at her misstatement.

Trying to be clever, PC Leader John Tory shot back: "The minister is like Dr. No over there, with a million/billion dollars, but it’s not funny."

Er, actually, that should have been Dr. Evil. Dr. No was Ian Fleming’s master villain in the James Bond novel and film of the same name.

Dr. Evil, of course, is Austin Powers’ nemesis in the spy spoofs by Scarborough native Mike Myers. His catchphrase, pinky in mouth, is "one miiiiiiillion dollars."

A speech for all blokes and varmints....

If the Speech from the Throne is too predictable for you, the "dialectizer" from Google might be just the ticket at http://www.rinkworks.com/dialect/.  You just take the web address of the Throne Speech,  which is http://www.sft-ddt.gc.ca/default_e.htm, and type it into the magical translator.

If you prefer the Throne Speech in "redneck," for instance, here's a translation:

Kinadians haf chosen change. They be hankerin' a govment thet treats their tax dollars wif respeck. A govment thet puts o'dinary wawkin' varmints an' their families fust. A govment thet is accountable. This hyar Govment has been given a man'ate t'lead th' change deman'ed by th' Kinadian varmints.

Or maybe you'd rather hear it in "cockney."

To this end, the Government will reduce the Goods and Services Tax by one percent. Cuttin' the GST will 'elp all Canadians deal wiv the bloomin' risin' cost of livin', put brass hammer and tack in blokes's pockets and 'elp stimulate the economy.

And Elmer Fudd is always funny.
Stwong famiwies ensuwe a bwight futuwe fow Canada. De most impowtant investment we can make as a countwy is to hewp famiwies waise theiw chiwdwen, uh-hah-hah-hah.